Operations

Volkswagen Buys Fleet Co. LeasePlan

April 30, 2004

Hamburg -- Volkswagen AG and two Middle Eastern partners will buy LeasePlan Corp., a global fleet management company, from ABN Amro Holding NV for $2.3 billion, Bloomberg Europe reported last week.
Volkswagen will buy 50 percent of LeasePlan, with the Saudi Arabian Olayan Group and the Abu Dhabi state-owned Mubadala Development Co. each taking a 25 percent stake, Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder said at the annual meeting in Hamburg.
Volkswagen plans to sell its own leasing business, Europcar Fleet Services, to LeasePlan. Volkswagen had tried to buy LeasePlan in 2001, but at the time ABN Amro decided then to keep the unit.
Although Volkswagen will be a major shareholder in the company, the firm insisted LeasePlan would retain complete independence as a leasing company.

Ford's president and chief executive of its Canadian market, Mark Buzzell, will return to the U.S. as the director of North American Fleet, Lease and Remarketing Operations starting Jan. 1, Ford has announced.

Bobit Business Media has been acquired by Gemspring Capital, a middle-market private equity firm. Bobit, which bought HDT in 2012, was founded by Ed Bobit in 1961 with Automotive Fleet and today is a successful business-to-business media company in the fleet, transportation, beauty, and law enforcement industries.

Bestpass has saved commercial fleets more than $100 million in toll-related savings, the toll management provider announced. Its clients range in size from independent owner-operators to mega-fleets with thousands of vehicles.

The procurement function of researching, negotiating contracts, and purchasing fleet vehicles must harmonize with the management of those assets, so the corporation can achieve the most efficient and best utilization of a fleet’s vehicle lifecycle.